Is the COVID-19 bad news game good news? Testing whether creating and disseminating fake news about vaccines in a computer game reduces people's belief in anti-vaccine arguments

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-08-31T03:14:53Z
dc.abstract.enImproving vaccination eagerness is crucial, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and establishing new procedures to achieve that goal is highly important. Previous research (Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019a, 2019b) has indicated that playing the “Bad News” game, in which a player spreads fake news to gain followers, reduces people's belief in fake news. The goal of the present paper was to test an analogous new game called “COVID-19 Bad News (CBN)” to improve one's eagerness to vaccinate against coronavirus. CBN was constructed to examine whether creating and disseminating fake news focused on vaccinations and the COVID-19 pandemic has a similar effect and improves people's attitudes toward vaccination. Two experiments were conducted where participants played CBN or Tetris and afterwards evaluated the credibility of statements about vaccines against COVID-19 and finally filled out a questionnaire concerning their attitudes toward vaccination. The results show that playing CBN does not reduce evaluations of the credibility of all statements that are unfavorable to vaccines (false as well as true). Additionally, it does not enhance readiness to vaccinate. Future research and limitations are discussed.
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii we Wrocławiu
dc.contributor.authorRędzio, Anna Magdalena
dc.contributor.authorIzydorczak, Kamil
dc.contributor.authorMuniak, Paweł
dc.contributor.authorKulesza, Wojciech
dc.contributor.authorDoliński, Dariusz
dc.date.access2023-05-01
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-18T09:59:26Z
dc.date.available2024-01-18T09:59:26Z
dc.date.created2023-04-28
dc.date.issued2023-06
dc.description.accesstimebefore_publication
dc.description.grantnumberGOSPOSTRATEG-II/0007/2020-0
dc.description.granttitleSocial and economic development of Poland in the globalizing market
dc.description.physical1-13
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume236
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103930
dc.identifier.issn0001-6918
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/383
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823001063?via%3Dihub
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY-NC-ND
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.enVaccination eagerness
dc.subject.enCOVID-19
dc.subject.enInoculation theory
dc.subject.enFake news
dc.subject.enGame reducing belief in fake news
dc.subject.enAttitudes changing via playing a game
dc.swps.sciencecloudnosend
dc.titleIs the COVID-19 bad news game good news? Testing whether creating and disseminating fake news about vaccines in a computer game reduces people's belief in anti-vaccine arguments
dc.title.journalActa Psychologica
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle